The Dream Lives On: Our Unanswered Questions
by Phoebe-and-Tabbatha.com
Summary: The series ended too quickly and left some loose threads; I think we can all agree on that. What about What about Vervain and Granite? And Fiver's vision of Hawkbit getting buried? And will someone PLEASE tell me if Dandelion every gets a doe? Please R&R!
1. The Legend Lives On

The moon beamed down coldly on two lone figures that drifted slowly across a field, one small and scrawny, the other gruff and three times the size of his companion.

"This should be good," said the first with a chuckle, his accent strangely familiar to the listener's ears.

"About as good as anywhere else, I suppose," said the other one with a much deeper voice. "You're sure you know the process?"

"Why doubt me, Granite? I've more practice with spells than any other rabbit you're ever likely to meet."

"Oh, really."

"Yes," nodded the scrawny black one. "In fact, I've met a hedge wizard myself. Hannah Milana, was her name, and I tell you, her magic was as real as the day is long!"

"You're a raving lunatic, Vervain. Get on with it before I cuff your lying eyes straight out of your head."

The first rabbit, Vervain, nodded seriously before throwing three maple leaves, two blue jay's feathers, and a man stick into the ditch. "Alright," he said, and took up the chant:

"_When thunder breaks through earth, _

_and lightning cuts short breath,_

_whilst honoring a birth_

_and mourning for a death._

_My master be departed,_

_my chief, forever gone, _

_until Inle be started,_

_and take him back by dawn."_

The Maple leaves began to hover, spinning round in circles, while the Blue Jay's Feathers glowed and the man stick burst into flames. It was as if all of Inle had come into one spot, releasing utter chaos.

Granite flinched, and squinted to be able so see in the wind. "By Frith, you've done it!" he shouted.

"You doubted me?" asked Vervain, looking genuinely shocked, but Granite had no time to give an excuse, because just then, they got what they came for.

"Vervain," growled Woundwort, his voice low and angry. He was nothing but a dark shadow with the exception of a glowing red eye.

"Master," said Vervain, bowing alongside with Granite.

"You have awakened me from my slumber of afterlife. Why?"

"By your orders, sir," said Vervain pitifully. "You swore you'd be back; that you'd never stop hunting. You're chance is now."

The ghost laughed. "And all this time, I thought you disliked me behind my back."

Vervain looked down slowly, wondering if it had been that obvious. He thought of his real goal in this, to win the defeat over Watership Down, and become a prodigy whom rabbits will never forget, and there was only one rabbit that could lead this war.

"Nevertheless," continued the General. "Much gratitude, Captain Vervain. You have freed me from my chains. For that, I will help you."

Now Vervain pursed his lips, almost annoyed with the General for acting as if he were doing this as a charity. Vervain knew what his chief wanted. He always knew.

"Granite," said Woundwort, his eye momentarily flicking to the other rabbit, then back, "Vervain, come. We have… attack plans to go over. I find that being dead has the advantages that we need. First, we must find the nearest man burrow." He laughed so coldly that Vervain and Granite shuddered.

"Yes, sir."

Fiver started up in his burrow. Something was wrong… terribly wrong. He could feel it in his blood, but could not place it. But it was coming; faster than a thousand hrududil.

Bigwig's harsh voice cut through the pleasant outside noises like a knife. "On your feet, lads! We're leaving for a patrol!"

Danelion jumped up, having been so preoccupied with a patch of clover that he had not seen Bigwig approach. Hawkbit did a full spin to face Bigwig. "Aye, captain. Who knows what new enemies we'll discover today?"

He sounded completely lighthearted and sarcastic, but Bigwig nodded approvingly. "There's the spirit, my old son."

"I never really get why he calls is that," whispered Dandelion as he watched the large buck go back to warn Hazel that they were leaving.

"He's cocky."

"Suppose so," agreed Dandelion. "You notice that Bigwig seems to be putting us through _more_ patrols now that Woundwort's done with?"

"He doesn't know what to do with his freedom," replied Hawkbit. "He'd rather have an enemy than be bored, see."

"Or maybe he just does it to impress Spartina," laughed Dandelion.

"Yeah," agreed Hawkbit with a chuckle. "That must be it."

As Bigwig neared the beech tree, there was a rustle of grass nearby and he found himself in the ears-up position. Then he was under attack… by the kittens.

"We've got him!" cried Robin, bouncing on his hind legs on his father quickly. Robin was on Bigwig's back and attacking at the fur on his head like a cat and mouse.

"Hardly so, Robin," replied Terra smugly from her patch of grass. "Not that dad would ever admit it, but he's just letting you when."

"Oi, what do you mean, Terra? Little Robin here has a heck of a fighting streak… like you, when someone messes with your flowers." He brushed Robin off his back. "I'm going on patrol, kids. Be back in two shakes."

"I'd like to come on patrol with you!" shouted Eliroo ("Little Enemy"), bouncing from his spot in the grass, his black ears flying forward and smacking him in the face.

Bigwig shuddered at the very thought of any of his five kittens going on patrol, but showed no signs of weakness. "As soon as you can tackle a weasle. Then we'll see."

Eliroo pouted. "It's not very fair that you keep us shut up in this warren. There's never any action."

"It's not me," said Bigwig, lowering his voice and looking around as if nervous he were being eavesdropped on. "It's your mummy, see. She somehow got the idea in her head that it's dangerous to go around and play bob-stones with foxes. Odd, really."

Terra smirked into her grass as Eliroo pouted some more. "I'm going to tell her you said that," said Terra.

Bigwig looked mock-scared. "Oh, no, Terra, please don't! Your mummy will rip my ears to shreds if she knows!"

Terra just kept her eyes on the grass as Bigwig chuckled to himself and ran down the run. Fiver and Hazel were having a serious conversation; a large turnaround from the conversation Bigwig had been having previously. The chat seemed to be just ending as Bigwig approached.

"Yes, Hazel," sighed Fiver. "I suppose it's nothing."

Hazel nodded, still frowning when he turned to Bigwig. "Hello, Bigwig," he said rather distractedly.

"'Ello, Hazel. I'm taking the owsla out for a patrol. You won't miss us too terrible?"

"I'll try to contain my grief," replied Hazel sarcastically. "Be back before sundown."

"Will do. It'll only be a quick spin."

With that, Bigwig scampered back up the run to find Eliroo and Robin running along on top of Dandelion, chanting, "We've captured a fox! We've captured a fox!"

Dandelion opened his eyes after pretending to be dead. "Oh, there you are. Lovely day, isn't it?"

"Get up," ordered Bigwig with a play of a smile on his lips. Dandelion obediently stood up and shook off some dirt.

Bigwig sighed as if Dandelion were the most hopeless, pathetic creature within miles. "Where's your mate?"

"I don't have one," replied Dandelion, purposely trying to sound as stupid as possible.

Bigwig may have bitten Dandelion if not for his kittens there. "Where's your chum, then?"

"Do you mean Hawkbit?"

"No, I mean Woundwort," replied Bigwig snippily. The kittens all paused from their activities and shuddered, having heard stories that displayed Woundwort to be the second scariest thing in this world, next to the Black Rabbit of course.

"Well, no need to get our tempers up. He's at the base of the hill waiting to begin."

"As you should be," said Bigwig. "Get a move on!"

The two rabbits scuttled down the hill to where Hawkbit sat in a dreamy daze, looking up at the clouds until Bigwig kicked him over. "Quit slacking off you lazy lay bouts, we've got a warren to protect!"

Hawkbit and Dandelion exchanged grins as if sharing some inside joke before standing straighter. "Let's get on with it then."

Pipkin **(A/N: and we mean the REAL Pipkin, as in the small one with the Scottish Accent without an ugly ring around his eye)** sat in the grass, distastefully wrinkling his nose as he squinted against the sunlight, seeing the grass that was still parted, facing in the direction that his junior owsla had run off in. Primrose had permitted her kittens to go on a berry gathering, it seeming to drive her mad with worry of anything happening to them, but being driven mad all the same by the constant begging of being able to do something freely.

He sighed, absolutely bored. No one was in the mood for tail tag or bob-stones, not that he played it as often these days. He considered going to chat with Bigwig's kittens when a noise came from the bushes behind him.

"CLAU!!!! CLAU!!!!!!!"

Pipkin jumped and bolted to take cover in a ditch, but before he got there, he stole a glance over his shoulder and stopped dead in his tracks. It was a small bird with white feathers and patches of brightly lit colors around its head. As sure as day, this was a young gull.

Pipkin turned around to face the gull, who cocked its head to the side. "Hello," said Pipkin, his voice as light and friendly as he could manage after having a near heart attack.

The small gull opened its beak and sang out, "'Lo! 'Lo! What ees you?"

Pipkin had had enough experience from both Kehaar and Scree to understand what he meant enough. "I'm Pipkin, and I'm a rabbit. What's your name?"

The little gull puffed out its chest. "I Claudia!"

"That's a nice name," said Pipkin, smiling. "Are you here all by yourself?" Pipkin was already anticipating the answer.

"Nah nah, my daddy, 'e bring me 'ere. 'E say that I meet 'is old friends!"

"Really?" asked Pipkin, pretending to be clueless about the whole situation. "Where's your daddy now?"

Claudia shook her head. "'E get lost while bring me 'ere. 'E trying to find it now while searching in de sky!"

"Could you do me a favor, Claudia? Could you bring your daddy down here? I'd like very much to speak with him."

Claudia opened and closed her beak several times as she tried to understand how anyone should like to talk to her father. Finally, she beat her wings. "Ja, ja. I get heem. You stay. I go. Come back, ja?"

"Alright then, that's fine," said Pipkin. As Claudia took off, Pipkin realized his back legs were trembling in excitement, and he became aware of how much he wanted to run back to the warren and tell everyone that Kehaar was back. But that wouldn't do much good, would it.

"I wonder how many kittens he's got," said Pipkin aloud to no one in particular. That was only to keep him occupied, but he got more excited by the moment, because he could see two figures coming in fast. Then, Kehaar **(A/N: And we mean the REAL Kehaar, not the fake one with the stupid accent. Seriously, that was not Kehaar's accent in the third season, that was some not accented guy holding his nose!)** did his signature crash landing.

"Kehaar!" shouted Pipkin, already running toward the gull that was picking himself up.

Claudia, who had landed perfectly evenly by her father's side, cocked her head to the side. "Daddy? Dis dee ol' friends you told of?"

"Peepkin, Kehaar find you!" Kehaar said excitedly. Pipkin made a mental note that Kehaar hadn't picked up many more Lapine skills while off in the big city.

"It's lovely to have you back Kehaar, but where are the rest of your babies?"

Kehaar's joy seemed to slip away at that point. He frowned. "I have many of dem. T'ree. But Gluck! Gluck keep dem wit' 'er and Reesco!"

"Reesco? Who's he?" Pipkin sat up, feeling a pressing sense of resent bowling in the air.

"Gluck's odder mate!" Kehaar sighed. "I vanted to keep dee cheecks, but Gluck say, 'No, I keep children. You know what I have to do to get dem? I have to—'"

"That's quite enough, Kehaar. Remember he is still a kitten," interrupted a voice from the grass. Pipkin jumped, but Kehaar's smile crept back up to his lips.

"Hanja! You still here! Kehaar plenty happy 'e see you again!"

"I'm glad you're back, you big lug," welcomed Hannah as she approached Kehaar, who was jumping in excitement. "It was getting a little boring not having only Scree to talk to.

"Scree? Hawk dat I teach fly?"

"The very one. He'll be glad you're back."

"But… Scree ees back?" asked Kehaar, confused.

"Who Scree, daddy?" asked Claudia, jumping up and down to get attention.

Hannah was on Kehaar's back now. "Hug now. Talk later."

Bigwig seemed distracted as he crept through the underbrush, but that didn't keep him from giving orders. "Ears up, now, lads. An enemy could pop out at any time, any place." He kept low to the ground and on the alert.

Hawkbit and Dandelion, though, were trotting behind him at a leisurely pace, carefree as they browsed through the selections of grass. "Really, Bigwig. I think we've gone to war with everything evil, deceiving, or mildly annoying within a hundred miles. No need to make yourself look foolish like that."

"Don't get bigheaded, now," snapped Bigwig. "We're not invincible, and you should know. Remember how you were underground during the last battle?"

Something to the right caught Dandelion's eyes. He turned his head for a moment before going into a full gawk. "Umm… Guys?"

"And you were unconscious," countered Hawkbit, leaning forward.

"Bigwig? Hawkbit?"

"At least I went down with a fight! You were prepared to let Hazel go to combat with an army," Bigwig snarled.

"Guys!"

"I was protecting the burrow," replied Hawkbit, narrowing his eyes.

"GUYS!!!!"

"WHAT?" both Hawkbit and Bigwig shouted, snapping their head toward Dandelion.

Dandelion was silent a moment before lifting a paw and pointing to the clearing. "That."

Bigwig and Hawkbit followed Dandelion's point, and rested there eyes on a rabbit. It was small with wide, green eyes and reddish-brown fur. It was a kitten, no older than Pipkin by the looks, and it had gone completely tharn.

"What in Frith's name?" asked Bigwig. The kitten tried to make a noise, but it came out as a whimper. "Is it lost?"

The reply slammed into all of them and pinned Dandelion to the ground with claws curls at his throat. Dandelion was awestruck, but became even more so when he looked up and saw, pinning him down, a doe.

Bigwig was ready. He spoke in a low, calm voice. "Who are you?"

"I'll ask the questions," snapped the doe. "This is my territory."

"This is your warren?" asked Hawkbit, who's heart was pounding in his chest as he saw his best mate about to get mauled.

"For tonight it is. I'll be gone by tomorrow."

"That's lovely," said Bigwig, his voice still contained. "But, if you could be so kind, would you do me the favor of removing yourself from my owsla?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**WHEW! This our second WSD story, and I'm really psyched about it. Please review, because I really think this is a cool story I'm writing (although I know there are some other versions of season four…) Sorry about the incredibly annoying length of this, but the TV show left us with so many unanswered questions that it was hard to touch on all of them without writing a lot. BUT… at least I got to Kehaar's kids, Vervain and Granite… and that's about it for this chapter (well, there's more, but I don't want to spoil anything). Well, thanks for reading, and please keep in mind that I haven't even gotten to a lot of the unanswered questions (like remember Fiver's vision of Hawkbit getting buried, and later in the show he told Silverweed that his visions were never wrong? Oooh, -insert anxiety attack here-). Alright, I'm gonna go now, but I just want to ask you to please review, it would make me so happy to know that I'm acknowledged in this section of FF. **

**Okay, Thanks!**


	2. Questions Arise

It was dark in Blackberry's world as she lay on the floor of her burrow, trembling and enduring the pain. She didn't mind the pain so much as she did the fear. These were her kittens she was worrying about. It wouldn't be long until they came around. What if they ended up like…

She didn't want to allow herself to think about the first litter. They had all been born dead. Not one had survived, forever scarring Campion and Blackberry, putting them in fear of trying to have kittens once more. How could they? It would never be the same.

She hadn't even noticed Primrose come in until she had dropped some new bedding beside her. Startled, the expectant doe looked up at her friend. "Primrose," she said, quivering. "Oh, thank you… but you don't have to—"

Primrose was all smiling as she sat beside Blackberry, giving her a friendly nudge. "Oh, of course I do. You've taken care of everyone in their time of need. You were right there beside me as I was going through the same thing as you. I _do_ have to help you."

Blackberry managed a weak smile and sat up, figuring she couldn't become a lazy waste of space just because she was pregnant. "Thank you, Primrose. You're a lifesaver."

"I'm nothing of the sort," argued Primrose.

Blackberry smiled, closing her eyes and feeling the pain once more of the not-so-distant past.

Blackberry, however, was not the only one in pain. One look at Vilthuril, sprawled on the ground beneath a bush, shivering and crying, and this could be told right away.

Zephyr tried to calm her down, but he felt close to tears as well. His sister was sick, possibly dying, but taken over by something terrible, and neither he, his little sister Fern, or Nutmeg, his Mum, could do anything about it.

Vilthuril opened her blue eyes, sputtering ancient words that perhaps not even she understood.

_"Frith, deliver saviors, at what be thy cost,_

_ One shall live to tell, whilst the other be…"_

Vilthuril gasped for breath, and began to kick wildly, fighting her hardest against the fear of tomorrow. She screamed, much to the dismay of her brother. "MUMMY! MUMMY!"

Now Zephyr, protective brother as he was, began to cry beside her. He fidgeted between the branches of the bush they lie in, yet he could not find his mother. "Mother! It's happened again! Mother! Frith, protect us! Mother!"

No one dared say a word as these calls erupted from just behind the doe. The entire array of the vision they'd just heard was frightening. Perhaps it had nothing to do with Watership Down, and perhaps it had everything to do with it. "Frith up a tree!" exclaimed Bigwig as the noise died down. "What was—"

"Leave," ordered the doe coldly. When she got no response, she began to scream at them, working to be as threatening as she could. "LEAVE!!! Get away from me and my family! I need no help from outsiders such as yourself, especially not _bucks_!" She spat out the word as if it left a disgusting taste in her mouth. "I'll have nothing more to do with bucks. Not ever again!"

The dark, withered doe backed up from her hostage, shoving the long golden rabbit forward into Hawkbit, who tripped into the mud. Bigwig gave an eye twitch in humiliation, thinking to himself that it was a bloody shame his Owsla should choose now to seem like a great bunch of bumbling fools.

With that, the mysterious doe that they knew nearly nothing about turned and ran towards the screams, tears already in her eyes. The reddish kitten, too, had now departed into the bushes, where the screams were growing worse.

Dandelion sat up, fear and curiosity, and a few other feelings, in his eyes. "What's all that about, then?" he asked shakily. He was trembling, figuring that he had very nearly told his last story.

"It's nothing our business," dismissed Bigwig, and he gestured to his peanut gallery to move out, and to do it fast. Not even he believed these words, but if he led on his friends to believe otherwise, only Frith knew how they'd react.

No one seemed to want to argue about that. Bigwig began to trudge off, flinching with each scream of the tortured soul that lay so close, half of him wanting to turn back and help, while the other half knew that would be near suicide.

Then the screaming began once more, and, this time, not a single one of them dared to speak, move, or breathe as their blood turned cold.

"FIVER!"

After that, the cries settled back into whimpers, and the only other sounds were the scuttling of nearby animals and low conversation that came out in only buzz.

Bigwig sucked in a breath, and blew it out. "Okay…" he said after what felt like an eternity of fear and wonder. "Now it's our problem."

Quite a buzz had come up back at the Honeycomb as soon as Kehaar had once again joined his friends, and began to tell of his adventures. "Everywhere I go," he said, shaking his head and pacing for emphasis. "Dere cats, people, and udder meanies that love gobble me up. But I outsmart dem all!"

Everyone nodded in agreement, figuring they couldn't well argue with that. Kehaar _was_ still alive, relieving nearly anyone.

"So, tell us, what did you see, Kehaar," said Hannah, thinking back to what she remembered of the big city. It'd been a long time since she'd been there, and she'd been lucky to escape with her life. Just thinking about it made her damaged ear feel the sick sense of fresh blood oozing across it. Fast as she could, the little mouse shook her head and got up a plastic smile.

Kehaar puffed out his chest, proud as his daughter, who was sitting in the corner next to Pipkin. "So much food! Men, dey leave 'im scattered on the ground like dey're leaves and sdicks!"

Kehaar began to flap, rising dust around. "But mostly, I see junkyard. BEEEG Von full ov food scraps. And I make friends wit all de odder animals dat live dere, just like you teach me do here!"

"Splendid, Kehaar!" answered Hazel, proud that his teachings had indeed made an affect.

Hannah, however, felt a little difficulty with this, having distant memories of a less-than-friendly friends from a junkyard herself, and the way Kehaar was speaking of them made her stomach churn. "Friends, Kehaar?" she asked nervously.

Kehaar smiled at Hannah, figuring that she had guessed what was to come next. "Ja, ja!" he said, ruffling his feathers just so that he could smooth them out again. "Dere one colony of mice, actually. Dey say dey know you!"

Hannah's heart nearly stopped beating as her eyes widened in fear, but Kehaar didn't quit, him being quite poor at picking up body language.

"Dere chief, he say he remember you. He say he want meet you again and asked vere he find jou!"

"And you told him!?" asked Hannah, her fear becoming full on terror.

"Ja!"

Hannah gasped, shaking violently as if she were on the verge of tears, and fell back against the wall. Kehaar frowned, finally picking up that something was wrong, and the whole of the Honeycomb became dense with silence.

"Kehaar…" said Hannah slowly, her voice fragile as if she would burst out crying at any moment. "… When you talked to him… did you see his left paw?"

Kehaar nodded, his eyes trained on the little brown mouse.

"What did you notice about it?"

The gull paused. "It…"

Hannah jerked her head forward and looked at him with eyes now shining and pure terror written across her face.

"It was… missing a finger."

That was enough for Hannah. She gasped for breath and turned to run out of the Honeycomb, painful memories rushing towards her, drowning her as she let her teardrops roll across her whiskers.

After that were a few mutters of curiosity and concern for the little friend of Watership Down. She'd never acted like this before. In fact, this was the first time anyone had ever seen her cry. Everyone was curious, but no one was willing to venture into that unknown territory of whatever it was that was bothering Hannah.

Finally, Fiver sighed. "I supposed I'll go see what that's about then," he volunteered.

Hazel looked up the run. "I hope she's alright…"

Fiver nodded in agreement before he, too, made his way out of the Honeycomb and into the open air.

There was a sense of stillness and terror in the air as Robin and Eliroo looked round at the bushes that they'd found themselves lost in, hearing a predator stalk round in the cover, not quite sure of where it was. By now they regretted more than ever going on a secretive wide patrol as they had so dreamed of, thinking it would be all bob-stones and beechnuts.

The brothers pressed against each other, trembling as yet another twig snapped, the two close to tears. "It's been nice having you as a brother," whispered Eliroo. "It's just too bad we were idiots."

Robin nodded fearfully, but, not wanting to die a coward's death, step forward and challenged the hunter. "Show yourself, you mangy horror!"

"What on earth is mange?" questioned Eliroo.

Robin shrugged. Then he turned back to the silent bush and called, "I'm not afraid of you, you load of toad's breath. Come out here so I can tear you down by the whiskers!"

"Well, that's not a very nice thing to say," said a calm voice from behind the kittens. The two brothers jumped and ran into each other, each trying to bolt, but before either could get away, a chocolate brown paw was laid comfortingly on them.

"Whoa, don't run," she whispered, bending down to seem less threatening. "I'm just as lost as you."

Panting, out of breath, Robin looked round wildly. "You're not elil?"

"Sorry to disappoint you." She smiled cautiously. "Where's your warren."

"On the path of the setting sun," whispered Eliroo. "We've disobeyed our father, though. He'll be cross when he finds we're gone."

"I'm afraid I can't help you with that, though I was the same way as a kitten. My sister and I got into barrels of trouble." The light brown doe smiled now, though her eyes were filled with remorse. "But that's beside the point. I've become a hlessi now, as much as I wish to deny it. I'm trying to find a home."

Eliroo, good hearted lad that he was, immediately bounced up excitedly, energized by the chance of being able to help a fellow rabbit. "Hazel-rah would be glad to have you in the warren!"

Robin blinked, innocence in his eye as he nodded. "I was just thinking the same thing. Yes, we could take you back to the down. We could always use more rabbits after all we've lost in that war…"

Silence filled the air for a few moments before Eliroo looked up once more, another smile plastered from ear to ear. "What do you call yourself?"

Smiling, the doe nodded. "Hyzenthlay. My name is Hyzenthlay."

**XXX**

**Surprised? Lol, sorry about how long our update took. In truth, since Tabitha hasn't bothered to watch this series, it's just me writing, and I have MANY fanfiction account and even more stories. So I'm going as well as I can. ^_^ Anyways, hope you enjoyed this next chapter. As for what's coming with Hannah, I've always wondered what her past was, and why she's living in solitude, how she came to rip her ear like that, so now I've decided to fill in a story about that. Also, you can probably tell Hyzenthlay is going to stir up some drama. I figured we needed some of that after all the warfare, but there'll still be action. Plenty of that. The one thing that I regrt not having more of here, though, is some good Hawkbit and Dandelion bits. Seriously, how do you not love them?**

******'Till next time then.**

**-Phoebe.**


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